Today was a kids salmon day on SNB, but tuna died in big numbers off of GB.
It was WFO from the start today and pretty much every boat I heard from was plugged well before noon. Given the reports from down south, this is looking like another 2019 or better season. We can't wait. Mike C
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We probably should have run today, but decided to wait until next week.
We made the wrong call. Thanks to Starlink, I am in touch with a few boats fishing SW of Ilwaco and all had 20-30 fish before 11 am today. One buddy was crushing it a little over 30 miles out. There are a ton of tuna being caught in southern Oregon and they are headed our way. Our first charter is next week and we can't wait. Mike C Craig and I were lucky enough to get invited on a 1.5 day trip on Legendz, a bad ass tuna boat.
We were short on anglers, with only 4 people reeling in fish, but the crew was outstanding and kept us on fish. The crew had them boiling a number of times and the bait bite was excellent- with a few more sticks we could have done 100 tuna. We ended up with 64 the first day and 10 the next morning. Too bad the heat in PDX means lots of wind here, so probably no tuna fishing for around a week. The water is incredibly warm and there are lots of tuna in it. It is shaping up to be a great year. Mike C Tuna Time, Dick Crossley's 42' Henriques, ended up Sunday with 24 tuna out of Garibaldi.
This is one of the best first trips that I can remeber. The water off of the Columbia river is very, very warm, with patches of 64 degree water. This is insanely warm for June. The short term offshore forecast sucks, so it looks like we will not be heading west for tuna until at least 7/7 or so. We can't wait to head west. Mike C A sport boat out of Garibaldi got six tuna today.
The warm water and tuna are here. It is only a matter of a week or so before the big numbers show up. We can't wait. Mike C Darrel, me, and the gang went right back to the rip off the beach.
It started out strong and never slowed up. 5 limits for 5 guys in less than two hours. There are tons of hatchery (we only caught one native) salmon in the ocean right now. The offshore water is warming up fast and it is a matter of weeks before the tuna show up. Mike C Darrell, John, Nick, me, and some friends did a crew trip today.
Boat call was 8:30 due to the 9 ft exchange. We ran north off of Long Beach and found the fleet working a rip. 1.5 hours or so we had 10 coho and 2 chinook. The grade was much better than expected. Let's hope the rest of the salmon season is as good. The offshore water is heating up fast and I predict tuna within sport boat range in 2-3 weeks. Mike C 1/23/24 my phone started to blow up around noon and it was not good, the Ilwaco Landing was on fire and it was getting worse.
Pretty soon it was clear that it was going to be a total loss. A lot of crabbers had their gear on the docks as they were about to load up their boats for next weeks crab season. I have heard estimates of 6,000-9,000 crab pots, at around $300 a pot, were burned up during the fire. Most crabbers make a big part of their income in the first few weeks of crabbing, so this is a disaster and is likely going to put some of them out of business. If you want to help out, there is a Gofundme fund where 100% of the $$ is going to help the crabbers who lost gear. https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-fisherman-who-lost-pots-in-the-ilwaco-fire Please give if you can. Mike C Cpt John Cooney has the pending IGFA all tackle length world record albacore.
Way to go big John. https://igfa.org/member-services/world-record/common-name/Albacore The all tackle length records for juniors (under 16) and fly are still wide open, so if you want a shot a world record in 2024, we will do our best to try and get you one. 2023 was a solid season and with the El Nino we are experiencing right now, we expect 2024 to be an above average season and lots of exotics (marlin, yellowtail, bft, etc...). Deckhand Craiger is now Captain Craiger, so expect to see him on Shake N Bake a bit more during the 2024 tuna season. Happy holidays to all of our angling friends. See you next summer. Mike C I have been busy fishing, working, and being a dad, so I have been terrible about putting up fishing reports (I do put them on Ifish most days).
It slowed up for a few days and then got real good again this week. Today Darrell and Craig plugged the boat with 38 pigs and were done by noon. Too bad the wind is blowing, so we are shut down for a few days, but back at it this weekend. Mike C |
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